A little bit on why I'm here...

Dr. Perez recommended that I start a dedicated blog to chronicle my journey through this complicated thesis process. I intend this as a place to keep track of my reading, to organize and reflect upon the things that I learn, and to decompress when the attitudes I come across cause me angst, frustration, confusion or any other emotions that could cloud my abilities to empathize, critically evaluate, or otherwise process my data in a meaningful way.

A major premise that makes up part of the foundation of my philosophy as an anthropologist and ethnographer is that true objectivity is only possible theoretically. In real life, we have all of us become who we are through a long series of experiences and the lenses through which we've viewed them. Everyone has an agenda, a bias, a unique viewpoint that in some ways will endow them with a unique and valuable perspective, but in others will necessarily limit their complete understanding of any given phenomenon. In my opinion, it is not only an act of denial, but also an ethical problem to continue to insist on academic objectivity. The solution (for me at least) is simply to make my position explicit. A blog is particularly suited to this purpose, an up-to-the-minute technological innovation that will chronicle my process and hopefully illuminate where my points-of-view come from--to my audience as well as myself.

I hope to include a link to this, and perhaps even a bit of a discussion of it as a methodological tool, in the final body of my paper. Making it available as an appended resource will give anyone who wants it a personal look into how I crafted my thesis. Now away I go!